9:55 pm
Cargo hold of unknown ship
Dante was jolted awake by the cold water that was thrown on him. He was still in the cargo hold of the ship and had lost all track of time. There were no windows and only a single light bulb illuminating the space. He shook the water out of his eyes and took stock of his situation. Pretty well screwed summed it up. He was naked and strapped to a metal chair, his arms secured behind his back and his legs secured to the legs of the chair. Razin, or The Razor as he is appropriately nicknamed, spent a good bit of time with Dante yesterday and again today. His body was covered with small cuts, courtesy of Razin’s straight razor. One of his eyes was swollen almost all the way shut and his head was pounding from lack of food and water and the occasional punches they delivered.
There was just one man in the room with him now and it wasn’t Razin. Dante let his head fall to his chest again and when the man came at him to punch him in the face, Dante feigned left and brought his head up into the man’s chin, cracking his jaw. The man dropped limp at his feet. Dante had been working on the restraints throughout the night and almost had his right hand free. With one last burst of pain, his hand slid out of the right cuff. He leaned down and pulled the man half up on his lap and searched him, finding only a small pocket knife. It would do. Dante opened the blade and was able to work the lock on his left hand and then on the ankle restraints. Now free of the chair, he reached down and snapped the man’s neck. There was no use for pretense at this point, this was a war now. Dante tried to raise Simon through is comm but realized that the signal was likely being blocked by the ship’s hull. He needed to get topside and let Simon know that he was alright.
Once he had taken the dead man’s clothes and put them on, he went to the door and saw the hall was clear. He left the hold and secured it behind him again. He heard two men approaching from in front of him and quickly ducked behind a set of stairs and they walked right by him. He wasn’t ready to start open combat right now, not knowing how many men were on the boat and having no weapons. He just needed to make contact with Simon.
Over the next 15 minutes, he continued his cat and mouse game, moving one deck up at a time. Finally, he could see daylight peeking from the bottom of the door one deck above him. As he was about to take the stairs, he heard Razin’s voice,
“I don’t believe the kid was some random pick pocket out to steal my wallet as he said, there’s something about him. He has scars all over his body and he didn’t react to the razor the way the others did. I don’t like it. Go take care of him and throw his body overboard.” Dante heard the other man reply,
“Da” and heard him moving toward the stairs. He would have only a few minutes before the alarm was raised and they would know he was loose on the ship. He needed to buy a few more minutes so he ducked back underneath the stairs and waited. The man came down the stairs and was about to go down the next set of steps when Dante jumped from his perch and threw a flying elbow right into the back of the man’s neck. He went down into a pile and Dante quickly drug him out of sight under the stairs and made sure he wouldn’t be getting back up. After securing the man’s weapons, he continued his ascent into the daylight.
Once on deck, Dante saw a helicopter over on one side of the deck and a large pilot house in the middle. He tapped the spot on the back of his neck and started calling to Simon. There was nothing but static for a few seconds and then he heard,
“Dante, are you alright?” Simon asked with urgency in his voice. It felt like a warm blanket just got wrapped around him and he quickly replied that he was alright and gave Simon as much intel on the ship and his situation as he was able to. Simon told him to stay hidden and that the team was close. Once they got on scene, they would come up with a battle plan. Dante was just happy to be out of that stinky ship’s hold and into the sunshine. He found a secure location that he could keep an eye on what was happening on the deck of the ship and got comfortable. Or at least as comfortable as he could with all of the Razor’s recent gifts. He swore he would repay him tenfold when all this was over.